THINGS TO MAKE AND BREAK By May-Lan Tan 224 pp. Coffee House. Paper, $16.95. Image In the final story in Tan’s brilliant and daring collection, Vivien Chiang, a reluctant shop clerk, is robbed by a thief pressing a blade against her skull. “I didn’t think he wanted to kill me,” she says, “but to destroy me in some other way.” After he takes what he wants, she refills the register from her own savings and goes home to bandage her wound. Destruction and how to heal it run through these 11 stories.